When Fredi Bobic announced in April 2021 that he was leaving Eintracht Frankfurt for Berlin at the end of the season, people in Hesse feared the process at the end of which something would remain that people like to call “scorched earth”.
A few weeks earlier, coach Adi Hütter had announced his departure. With the sports director and presumably a handful of the best players, the complete successful Frankfurt build-up seemed to vanish into thin air.
Fear in Frankfurt, joy in Berlin
At Hertha, on the other hand, people rejoiced: Bobic, who as manager in Frankfurt had formed a lively club from a troubled relegation candidate into a lively club that was at times enthusiastic in the Bundesliga and Europe, should repeat the same at Hertha.
With the help of the Windhorst millions and the golden Bobic hand, Hertha would soon be dancing high up on Europe’s stage again – that’s the hope.
Seven bankruptcies, two draws
Today, almost a year later, Eintracht Frankfurt has stabilized. Hertha BSC rather not. Financier Windhorst seems alienated, the club in the capital is facing total bankruptcy in sport: With the defeat in Mönchengladbach at the weekend (0: 2), they have suffered seven bankruptcies so far in 2022, only at VfL Wolfsburg and in the home game against VfL Bochum sometimes tormented by a draw. Hertha is now second from bottom in the table – there is a risk of direct relegation to the second division. Added to this is the shattering 2:3 loss in the cup round of 16 against local rivals Union.
With Tayfun Korkut, Bobic has now fired the second coach, after he had already sacked Pal Dardai in November due to “lack of development”. Felix Magath should fix it now. With Magath on the coaching bench, Bobic and his team hope to be able to pull their heads out of the sporting noose. It’s already a disaster. Especially for Bobic.
Well connected internationally
Because the trained retail salesman seemed to be on the way to being able to completely reinterpret the managerial post in German Bundesliga clubs. Bobic, who, in addition to Serbo-Croatian, speaks fluent English and can also make himself understood in French, has looked beyond the football box from the beginning of his work at the desk.
With his buddy Lutz Pfannenstiel – now as sports director at the US football club St Louis City active – he maintains a worldwide network of contacts that is unparalleled in the football business. The two think and act internationally, so that a talented football bargain can hardly slip through their fingers, so it was thought in the meantime.
In Frankfurt: Successful on the player market
And Bobic’s successes in Frankfurt also confirmed this assessment. Bobic was hardly installed at Eintracht in 2016, when he brought numerous unpolished footballer diamonds to Frankfurt, who had not (yet) made the breakthrough at world clubs. But they performed excellently in Frankfurt. Preliminary highlight: The DFB Cup victory at the end of the 2017/18 season with coach Niko Kovac as coach on the bench and Kevin Prince Boateng as leader on the pitch.